Michael J. Oghia


Affiliation:	Fellowship Program, GNSO
Stakeholder Group(s):	,\|xyz\|xyz\| }}
Region:	Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Country:	Serbia
Email:	mike.oghia@gmail.com
LinkedIn:	Michael J. Oghia
Twitter:	@Mikeoghia

Michael Joseph Oghia is a Belgrade-based independent consultant & editor working within the Internet governance ecosystem, specifically focusing on sustainable access, digital rights, media literacy, and development & capacity building. He participated as a Fellow at ICANN58 in Copenhagen, Denmark, and was selected to be a fellow at ICANN60 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. His involvement with ICANN includes the Non-commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG), Non-commercial Users Constituency (NCUC), and Middle East and Adjoining Countries Strategy Working Group (MEAC-SWG).

Biography[edit | edit source]

Michael is a Belgrade-based independent consultant & editor working within the Internet governance ecosystem, He is a third culture kid (TCK) with professional experience in conflict resolution, journalism & media, civil society, and academia across five countries: the United States, Lebanon, India, Turkey, and Serbia. Michael works with Jane Coffin, the director of development strategy at the Internet Society (ISOC), and has been a two-time ISOC ambassador to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). He also collaborates with DiploFoundation as assistant curator for the GIP Digital Watch observatory (DiploFoundation), and was formerly the communications manager of iGmena, a program launched in 2012 by Hivos. Michael is actively involved in regional IGF initiatives, such as the Southeastern European Dialogue on Internet Governance (SEEDIG) and the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG). He has lectured on Internet governance at the Media and Digital Literacy Academy of Beirut (MDLAB), and frequently writes about development, digital rights, and the relationship between the Internet and sustainability. Michael holds a Master of Arts in sociology from the American University of Beirut, and a Bachelors of Science in sociology from the University of Louisville. Additionally, has completed various Internet governance and media policy-related training programs, including the 2017 European Summer School on Internet Governance (EuroSSIG) and 2016 Annenberg-Oxford Media Policy Summer Institute. Michael also loathes referring to himself in third person.